286 WANT OF AFFECTION. 



sweets, they will seldom stop until they have tested the 

 strength of every hive.' And again, ' Some bee- 

 keepers question whether a bee that once learns to 

 steal ever returns to honest courses.' Siebold has men- 

 tioned similar facts in the case of certain wasps (^Polistes). 

 Far, indeed, from having been able to discover any 

 evidence of affection among them, they appear to be 

 thoroughly callous and utterly indifferent to one 

 another. As already mentioned, it was necessary for 

 me occasionally to kill a bee ; but I never found that 

 the others took the slightest notice. Thus on October 

 111 crushed a bee close to one which was feeding — in 

 fact, so close that their wings touched ; yet the sur- 

 vivor took no notice whatever of the death of her 

 sister, but went on feeding with every appearance of 

 composure and enjoyment, just as if nothing had hap- 

 pened. When the pressure was removed, she remained 

 by the side of the corpse without the slightest appear- 

 ance of apprehension, sorrow, or recognition. She evi- 

 dently did not feel the slightest emotion at her 

 sister's death, nor did she show any alarm lest the 

 same fate should befall her also. In a second case 

 exactly the same occurred. Again, I have several 

 times, while a bee has been feeding, held a second 

 bee by the leg close to her ; the prisoner, of course, 

 struggled to escape, and buzzed as loudly as she could ; 

 yet the bee which was feeding took no notice whatever. 

 So far, therefore, from being at all affectionate, I doubt 

 whether bees are in the least fond of one another. 



